Spiced Apple, Pear, and Ginger Loaf

It's been a busy few weeks and I've had no time for blogging recently; hopefully with the end of term looming I will have a bit more time to blog in the near future. This is a recipe for a marvelous cake that I made recently; I wanted to make a pear/apple ginger loaf but struggled to find a suitable recipe, so I did what I usually do and combined several. It took a few tries before I got the recipe right but this one turned out lovely - the golden syrup really gives a lovely moist consistency to the cake, and the stem ginger tastes fantastic.

Ingredients

150g unsalted butter
150g soft dark brown sugar
150g golden syrup
200ml milk
250g plain flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1½ tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
75g chopped walnuts
3 pieces of stem ginger,
1 granny smith apple
1 dessert pear

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C/ 360 degrees F/Gas Mark 4.

1. Beat sugar and butter together, add the golden syrup and stir in.

2. Beat the eggs in, one at a time.

3. Add the flour, cinnamon, ground ginger, baking powder and fold into the mixture.

4. Add the milk and stir through.

5. Peel the apple and pear and chop finely/grate. Add to the mixture and stir.

6. Chop the stem ginger finely, and add to the mixture along with the chopped walnuts. Note if you buy whole walnuts, it is easier to break the walnuts into pieces with your hands rather than trying to chop them yourself.

7. Transfer to a loaf tin and cook for 45 - 60 minutes, until cooked through. The cooking time will vary hugely depending on the oven type you have; as a general rule, gas ovens will take longer (likely longer than 60 minutes) whilst with electric ovens, particularly fan-assisted, you will need to be careful not to burn the cake.